


Blossoming Ambrosia

by kei_song



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Sassy!Baekhyun, dumb gays, flower shop au, jongin is whipppeeeddd, sassy!Jongdae, so is sehun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2021-01-27 13:50:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21393235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kei_song/pseuds/kei_song
Summary: It started with an innocent crush on the employee in the flower shop that Jongin frequents. Little did he know that the very employee could hear every single terrible pickup line in his head.ft. chanbaek and a very exasperated yixing and jongdae
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol, Kim Jongdae | Chen/Kim Minseok | Xiumin - implied, Kim Jongin | Kai/Oh Sehun
Comments: 37
Kudos: 195
Collections: EXO MONSTERFEST 2019





	Blossoming Ambrosia

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt number #L145 - Jongin visits the flower shop everyday and rehearse tons of cheesy pickup lines in his head but never got enough courage to actually say it to the florist he had been crushing on since forever. Unknown to him, the florist is actually a fairy that have the ability to hear other people's thoughts.
> 
> I was very excited to write this but it's only after I wrote the bulk of it that I realized it wasn't quite exactly what the prompt originally said .... I'm so sorry but I hope you enjoy!!!

“You know you could just,  _ talk  _ to him,” Baekhyun drawls, “right? Or have you forgotten what actual human interaction is?”

Yet another day at the flower shop. Magical flower shop. Just because Baekhyun is the owner doesn't mean he can bully Sehun like this. Stoutly ignoring the older man, Sehun focuses on the flower arrangement he’s working on. Baekhyun scoffs. “You’re lucky I love you so much, or else I’d have told that poor boy everything.”

Sehun whips around to glare at him. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Baekhyun raises his brows. “Want to bet on that?”

Sehun scowls and opens his mouth again to protest, but the door opens from behind them and their perpetual mediator arrives, wrapping arms around Baekhyun’s waist from behind and lifting him into the air. Sehun mimes gagging.

“Come on, Baekhyun,” Chanyeol says, laughing. “Don’t be like that, he’s just shy.”

“Being shy doesn’t mean he has to watch that boy suffer,” Baekhyun says, pointing a finger at Sehun’s frown. “They’ve been dancing around each other for  _ months!” _

Chanyeol’s laughter booms around them again, and the taller man squeezes around Baekhyun’s waist to pull him even closer. “Be honest, you just want them to get together because you’re tired of hearing his pickup lines.”

Baekhyun whirls on Sehun again, though the movement looks extremely uncomfortable with Chanyeol keeping him in a tight hold. “If he didn’t look like Aphrodite reincarnate, by the way, I would very much oppose your relationship purely because of those terrible fucking pickup lines.”

Sehun pouts, the beginning of a complaint straight out of his mouth when he turns to where Jongin is with his friend, Yixing, and hears -

_ If only our relationship could blossom like these flowers. _

Sehun hides a giggle. Baekhyun stares at Sehun in horror, and Chanyeol looks between the two of them in confusion.

“Did you hear that.” Baekhyun's voice is flat. “Nevermind, you’re never allowed to talk to him again.”

Sehun whines. “ _ Hyung -” _

“Why are you even invited to so many parties,” Yixing asks, picking a flower with disdainful fingers.

“You’re just jealous you aren’t as popular as me,” Jongin huffs in offense, but it has no real bite. He’s too happy to snap much at Yixing today - Seulgi’s graduating, and his pride for her brims over his sour mood at the fact that all of his hyungs had decided to accompany him to poke fun of his embarrassing crush on the flower shop’s employee. “It’s not my fault I get invited.”

If anything, at least Minseok doesn’t seem too annoyed. The eldest of them has an amused little expression as he walks between the rows of flowers, like he’s hiding the twitch of a smile. “Oh let him off, Xing, he needs an excuse to see flower boy.”

“Hyung -”

Jongdae comes back with a single white lily and puts it into the arrangement that Jongin is holding. “Don’t pretend it isn’t true, if it wasn’t for him you wouldn’t even be going to most of the events anyways.”

Jongin scowls, but what they’re saying is true. He’s invited to weddings and parties and graduations because for some reason, parents of the students he teaches and - often the students as well - seem to enjoy his presence. He can’t lie and say that it isn’t the reason he frequents the flower shop so often, he’s used the excuse of events to get a pretty rose on more than one occasion.

And Sehun knows this. He’d asked, once, and Jongin had replied with the truth - even if he had left out the part that he came a little more often than he needed to just so he could see Sehun. Baekhyun also seems to know. At least, Jongin thinks he does. He’s the shop owner, who Jongin has absolutely no idea how to act around because he’s scarily intimidating for such a pretty person but he also acts like Sehun’s mom and Jongin feels like he has to impress him or get approved in some way whenever Baekhyun scrutinizes him from the back of the store.

Still, this time it's Seulgi, and Seulgi is important. Yixing shouldn't even be complaining, he has a soft spot for her too.

“Who is it for this time?”

Jongin whips around and yelps when he sees Sehun's face inches from his own. “Sehun!” Jongin tries to calm his stuttering heart. “Don’t scare me like that!”

Sehun laughs and Jongin fucking melts, ignoring the snickers from Yixing and Jongdae’s mutters of their disgusting flirting. “So? Who is it?”

Jongin pouts at the other man, but it’s hard to stay angry at Sehun when he’s looking up at Jongin with the most amused, endearing little smile, clearly waiting for his answer. 

“It’s for one of my longest students,” Jongin says with a defeated sigh, and Sehun takes the various flowers from his hands and starts leading them to the counter. His eyes travel along the colorful walls and shelves as he wonders, not for the first time, where Baekhyun gets all these unique plants from.

The entire foundation of this particular flower shop had been based on it being one with plants that had magical qualities. All of them create shapes and color schemes Jongin has never seen before, and some of the more expensive ones even sparkle or give off soft light in the dark. He supposes it’s just another reason they sell so well. “I’ve had her for four years, ever since I first started teaching. She’s going to an arts college abroad, so she invited me to her sending away party.”

Sehun smiles slightly. The way he clicks open the white painted side door never fails to take Jongin aback just a little every time. Maybe it’s because he’s a dancer, or maybe - probably - it’s because he pays attention to Sehun way too much, but the willowy way Sehun maneuvers around the flower shop and moves fascinates Jongin, how all his activities are effortless and purposeful, fluid movements like he's walking on air. Sehun doesn't seem fully human, sometimes.

Even now, Jongin’s mesmerized, watching Sehun start arranging the bouquet. Jongin stares at his long, nimble fingers swiftly weaving the flowers together before wrapping it all up in pink paper, finishing up the bouquet by tying a ribbon around the stems. “That’s very sweet. Is Yixing going with you?”

“Yeah,” Jongin says, rubbing a nervous hand at the back of his neck. “Um, how much is this?”

Sehun grins. “On the house,” he says, handing the bouquet out to him. He’s added a few pink carnations around the white lily, Jongin realizes belatedly. “Go say congratulations for me, too.”  
  
  


Over the past three months, Baekhyun has watched the same handsome young men walk into his flower shop on Saturdays and go around for bouquets and pots. Jongin and Yixing.

Yixing has soft eyes and a calming presence. A bit of an airhead, always thinking about his dance studio and not always focused when he walks into the flower shop but then again, their flowers are infused with a natural charm - that may or may not be the reason they’re so popular - so it might just be the effect the spell has on humans. Jongin is tall, tanned, and honestly if he was even close to Baekhyun’s type he probably would have jumped the guy. He might as well have been hand-crafted by a god, sculpted features and defined jaw and his  _ proportions _ . It’s almost unrealistic how he can have such a good heart while looking like perfection on legs.

Maybe the one fault Baekyun sees in Jongin is how the boy always has terrible flirts planned out in his head. He’s too shy to use them in real life anyway, so Baekhyun thinks they’re pointless, but Sehun’s always had strange taste.

The pickup line of the day is,  _ If you were a flower, I’d pick you, _ and both Baekhyun and Jongin cringe simultaneously the second Jongin thinks it. At least the boy knows what lines shouldn’t be crossed. Normally, Jongin would also turn to Yixing and ask for his opinion despite Yixing begging him not to make a fool of himself every single time. Today though, there is no Yixing, and there is no Sehun working with Baekhyun either.

Jongin walks up to him sheepishly, hand at the back of his neck and his fluffy black hair falling across his forehead. He looks particularly soft today, and Baekhyun wonders how much of a mess Sehun would have been. He’s holding a small white lily.

“Just this, please,” he says. One thing that’s always caught Baekhyun off guard about him is his personality. He doesn’t see much of Jongin, so he can’t know everything about him, but his voice is smooth and soft and his demeanor is one of someone that doesn’t quite know what to do with himself. His thoughts are of Sehun and where he might be, and Baekhyun smiles slightly as he punches in Jongin’s order.

“Sehun’s not here today,” he says, “if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Well, technically Baekhyun can hear  _ exactly  _ what Jongin is thinking, but Jongin doesn’t know that. Jongin’s eyes widen and an adorable flush settles on his bronze skin.

“Oh.” His voice is higher than usual. Baekhyun would have laughed in any other situation, but he takes pity on how panicked Jongin has become, mind racing through any and all excuses to say.

“He’ll be sad to have missed his favorite customer,” Baekhyun says before Jongin can blurt something out, and finishes wrapping the lily for him. He smiles and waves. “I’ll tell him you dropped by.”  
  
  


“I swear his manager has found out,” Jongin babbles, and Jongdae looks at him with a mixture of sympathy and exasperation. More exasperation. The emotion is almost always directed at him in some way at the corners of Jongdae's kitty lips even though Minseok claims - and so does Yixing, that Jongdae indeed has a soft spot for him. Jongin likes to believe it too, but really, it’s impossible to get a read on Jongdae.

“I’d be more surprised if someone  _ hasn’t _ noticed yet,” Jongdae waves him off. “You stare at him like he’s fucking hung the moon and stars.”

Jongin collapses into Jongdae, muffling a cry into his shoulder even as Jongdae makes an indignant noise and tries to push him away. “I -” Jongin falters, “he wouldn’t tell Sehun, would he?” It would be the  _ end _ of him if Baekhyun told Sehun about his embarrassing crush on the man.

Although, Jongdae’s right, Jongin does stare at him a lot whenever he’s there. He’d be more surprised if Sehun hasn’t figured it out either, really.

He knows he must look truly pathetic when even Jongdae softens and runs a hand through his hair, sighing. “Relax, Jongin. It’ll be fine.”

“Yeah,” Minseok agrees when he comes back from the kitchen, holding a tray full of drinks that he places down on the table. “And to be honest, I’ve seen that Sehun guy maybe twice and I don’t think it’s the first time a customer’s been interested in him.”

Jongin deflates. 

This is very true. Hopefully, Baekhyun sees him as just another hopeless admirer and thinks nothing of it. He buries his face in his hands, but Jongdae’s next words make him pause and glance up at his hyung.

“Just be careful, Jongin,” Jongdae says, and sighs when Jongin frowns in confusion. “You know there’s a chance that he’s not human. At least not fully? There are species that would take advantage of normal humans and whatever attraction to them.”

“Sehun wouldn’t do that,” Jongin says indignantly, feeling a strange need to protect the man. “We know Lu-ge, anyway, he’s Fae and he never did anything like that.”

Jongdae’s expression is guarded, but he still allows a small smile. “I’m not telling you to assume things, Jongin. Just be careful.”

Jongin’s frown doesn’t really let up. He’s had his suspicions, sure. Sehun - and Baekhyun - are too pretty, a little ethereal in presence, and their connections with magical plants had been the source of many rumors when the shop first opened. But it’s not like Sehun’s been the one to approach him directly, nevermind try to do anything that would set off alarm bells in Jongin’s head. 

“Don’t take him too seriously,” Minseok says quietly, arm settling around Jongdae’s shoulders. “There’s reason to be careful, but I don’t think Sehun’s like that either. He seemed very sweet.”

Jongin lightens a little. “He is.”

He believes it.  
  
  


There are times Jongin wonders why he even bothers with dragging Yixing over to the flower shop at all. It had started purely because he has anxiety around places and people he doesn’t know and the shop is close to their dance studio anyway, so why not drop by before practice? But now, now he wishes he’d never brought Yixing at all.

“You know,” Yixing says very loudly, “your sisters keep asking when you’re going to get a boyfriend.”

Jongin doesn’t dare looking back at the counter where Sehun is. His face is beet red, he’s sure, but Yixing isn’t stopping. From the corner of his eye, he thinks he sees Baekhyun throw them a strange look.

“It’s a shame you’re so picky. You just  _ need _ to have a tall, pretty guy that smells like flowers -”

Jongin slaps his hand over Yixing’s mouth and shoots the dirtiest glare he can at him. “Fuck you, Xing, I do not need this right now.”

Rolling his eyes, Yixing removes his hand from his lips and gives him an exasperated little sigh. “You’ve done this for what,” and mercifully, he keeps his voice down this time, “three months now? You know his name. You’ve been talking and it seems like you get along well together. What the fuck are you waiting for? You think he’s just going to show up one day wearing a neon sign that says, ‘Please ask me out, Kim Jongin,’ and make it that convenient for you? You haven’t even tried a single one of your fucking terrible pickup lines -”

“They aren’t  _ terrible,” _ Jongin says indignantly. And to be fair, he had attempted it once, but he’d been too nervous to say it out loud and ended up muttering something incomprehensible and earned a dirty look from Baekhyun instead. “Look, I’m not ready right now. Just, please, don’t say anything.”

Yixing stares at him for a moment before he shakes his head. Disappointment, probably.

“What are the flowers for today?” His best friend asks instead, motioning warily to the pot Jongin’s holding as they make their way to the counter. “Last I checked you don’t have yet another graduation to go to.”

“It’s for myself,” Jongin says, rolling his eyes. “I have plants of my own.”

“Are you sure you won’t just kill all of them?”

Jongin makes an offended noise. “Do you have that little faith in me?”

“You say that like it’s a surprise." Yixing glances up and nods at someone. "Hey, Sehun.”

“Hello, Yixing,” Sehun replies, and Jongin almost chokes when he turns around and realizes Sehun had been right behind him. He really needs to stop sneaking up on him like that. Jongin’s still recovering when Sehun faces him and smiles, that smile of his that makes his eyes turn into soft half-moons and has Jongin weak in the knees. “Hi, Jongin.”

Jongin swallows as Sehun takes the pot from his hands, promptly forgetting what he’d been planning to say and barely managing to stutter out a, “Hi, Sehun.”

He thinks he sees Sehun’s smile twitch a little in amusement, but he can’t be sure.

“Did you want a potted flower?” Sehun asks, holding up the one he’d taken from Jongin. He smiles at Jongin’s nod. “What kind?”

“I’m not sure,” Jongin frowns, “I have a lot of green plants in my room so I thought it might be good to have some color, but I also want a bit of white.”

“I think I might have a better option for you, then,” Sehun says, placing the pot back where it had been. “Come on.”

Jongin follows Sehun through the store blindly. Small as the store is, there are a lot of winding shelves and selected grounds for larger plants that need more space to themselves, and Jongin has to work not to step on any roots or leaves dangling on the floor. He almost doesn’t notice Sehun stopping at a shelf, but he manages not to run into the other man as Sehun examines the mounds of flowers before he makes a small noise and picks a pot from one of the top rows.

“They’re daisies,” Sehun says, handing it to Jongin. Jongin takes it carefully, blinking at the flowers. They’re a mixture of pink and white daisies, but the colors are so pretty and they sway on their own with an invisible melody, not like the garden daisies he's seen around people's houses or window ledges. “They’re not too hard to take care of, so it’s a good place to start.”

It’s probably because Sehun’s the one who gave it to him, but there’s a sudden surge of protectiveness that comes over Jongin as he looks down at the pot. “I - yeah, I think I’d like that.”

Sehun smiles and leads him back to the front counter, where Yixing is waiting with his arms crossed and brows raised.

“That’ll be seven thousand five hundred won,” Sehun says, tapping against the screen and smiling when Jongin fumbles for the money. “Flowers say a lot about someone. You could try experimenting next time, I’ll see what I can do to help.”

As soon as they’re out of the flower shop, Jongin lets out the air he hadn’t realized he was holding, bending slightly to let himself breathe normally again.

Yixing sighs. “You’re so fucking whipped.”

Jongin can’t disagree.

  
  
  


“Come on, they’re not  _ that  _ bad,” Sehun says, tone amused as he rests his chin on his hand. 

They're watching as Jongin and Yixing go around the shop looking for certain flowers to go with the color scheme they're thinking of, and Sehun wonders if they'll call for help soon based on how hopelessly confused their thoughts are right now. He thinks this bouquet is for another student of theirs, but he can't be sure.

Baekhyun doesn’t give him a verbal response - just a flat look. “Do you  _ actually  _ enjoy them or are you just that into him?”

Sehun shrugs, but he’s biting back a smile, watching Jongin say something to Yixing and point to his phone. “I think his efforts are cute.”

He can hear Baekhyun’s thoughts as the older Fae thinks about the two of them in exasperation, and then as Baekhyun cringes thinking about some of Jongin’s failed pickup lines - “ _ if you were a flower, you’d be a damndelion,”  _ or “ _ if we were in a garden, I’d put our two lips together,”  _ but Sehun ignores Baekhyun’s critical thoughts. He likes them.

“You do know Jongin is attractive though,” Baekhyun says after a while, quietly. “Right? I’m sure he’s not short of admirers, whether he knows it or not. Sooner or later someone will realize how good a person he is. If they haven’t already.”

Sehun falls silent beside him. His eyes find Jongin and Yixing naturally, trailing the former’s movements around the store. “I know, hyung.”

Baekhyun sighs at the reply, but he doesn’t have the chance to say anything about it as another customer starts their way to the counter, a blushing girl who is clearly looking to Sehun. Sehun shoots Baekhyun a pleading glance, and Baekhyun shoos Sehun out without another word.

  
  
  


In retrospect, Jongin should have brought an umbrella.

In further retrospect, he shouldn’t have come out to the dance studio at seven in the morning either, but his impulse betrays him most days. He just wishes his impulse hadn't led to him out the door to a studio twenty minutes from his apartment without checking the weather forecast and its warning of a sudden storm. Which is what he'd walked straight into.

He’s just run under the cover of a cafe’s overhead roofs when there’s a spray of drops from right next to him, and he turns towards the source in surprise on pure instinct.

“I’m so sorry,” a man's saying, trying to wrestle his umbrella back into folding properly, but then he manages to close the umbrella and it uncovers his face, and Jongin's mouth drops open when he sees that it's Sehun. Sehun's eyes widen and the faintest dust of red settles on his pale cheeks when he recognizes Jongin. “Oh, Jongin I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to -”

“It’s fine,” Jongin tries to assure him, but half of him is panicking, the other half wondering how Sehun can possibly look  _ this _ good when he's disheveled, a mist of raindrops in his hair and his fringe falling into his eyes. It’s also the first time he’s seen Sehun in casual clothes, he realizes, not the apron he always has over a shirt and jeans in the flower shop. It should be illegal for anyone to be able to pull off denim jackets this well. Jongin barely catches Sehun’s next words as he stares.

“Your clothes are wet,” Sehun frowns, moving to examine Jongin’s jacket. “We should dry this off before you catch a cold.”

"It's really fine," Jongin tries to say, but Sehun gives him a look that makes him fall silent.

"Come on," Sehun says, tilting his head towards the cafe. "I'll buy you something while we're at it. Let me make it up to you."

Jongin gapes for a few seconds. His stupid, stupid thoughts immediately rush to wonder if this could be considered a date but he shuts the notion down as quickly as it arrives, and he misses the sliver of doubt flashes through Sehun's eyes. 

“I mean, if you’re busy -”

“I’d like that,” Jongin blurts, and he thinks in dismay that Sehun can probably hear his rushing heartbeat over the rain. But Sehun only smiles at him softly.

Both their cheeks are pink when they step into the cafe. Neither of them mention it.

  
  
  


"Happy Holidas," Sehun reads out with furrowed brows. "Holidas?"

"We forgot the 'y' at the end," Chanyeol explains, sheepish expression on his face as he smiles. His red hat sits crooked on top of his soft black hair and his eyes are big and round, so bright and excited. Sehun almost snorts. He looks like a child.

“Chanyeol, you’re supposed to be hanging the lights,” Baekhyun says, frowning as he comes up to them. He’s also wearing a Christmas themed outfit; lights hanging over his shoulders for some reason, his hair pushed down by a deer headband and a box of decorations in his arms. Sehun cringes. There's a reason he avoids coming to help with the shop when it nears Christmas, and Sehun already dreads the work Baekhyun's going to pile on him. 

And then he looks over Baekhyun again and frowns. "You dyed your hair, hyung?"

“It’s pretty, isn’t it,” Chanyeol smiles, poofing Baekhyun’s now-pink hair with his hands. Baekhyun scrunches his nose but says nothing. “Didn’t you say you wanted to dye your hair too? To white.”

“Not white,” Sehun corrects, wondering dryly how much longer he needs to stand here watching the two of them. “Silver.”

Chanyeol shrugs. “You’d look good either way.”

“You’re going to dye your hair?” Sehun hears behind him, and he turns to face Jongin only for his breath to catch at the sight; flushed cheeks from the cold weather outside, soft black hair tousled from wind. Jongin bows towards Baekhyun and Chanyeol then straightens to smile at Sehun. “It would suit you.”

Sehun reaches up to touch a few strands of his hair. Not for the first time, he’s thankful that Jongin isn’t Fae, and if nothing else, that he can’t read minds. “Yeah?”

Behind Jongin, Kim Jongdae - the older man Jongin comes to the shop with sometimes - makes a face at the two of them before he turns to Baekhyun and blinks.

_ Huh, _ Sehun hears him think.

He can’t blame him.

Chanyeol’s broader frame covers Baekhyun's back and one of his hands are at the shorter's waist, loose and gentle - fitting together a little like puzzle pieces. Even without the physical affection, anyone can recognize the look in Chanyeol’s eyes as he smiles down at Baekhyun, a softer gaze in them even as Baekhyun scolds him for putting the dirt in the pots incorrectly. Jongin’s also looking at them now.

"They're disgusting," Sehun pouts at Jongin, but really, he envies the relationship Chanyeol and Baekhyun have sometimes. Not that he admits it - even if Baekhyun shoots him knowing glances over the table whenever Sehun has to third wheel at their weekly dinners together. "I have to go through this almost _every_ _day_, can you believe that?"

"Be grateful we adopted you,” Chanyeol says without looking away from Baekhyun. Sehun sticks out his tongue and Jongdae snorts.

“I’m going back to Junmyeon-hyung,” Sehun pouts. “He was so much nicer to me.”

“You just liked it because he could never say no to you,” Baekhyun scoffs. He moves out of Chanyeol's embrace to continue setting up the decorations, then glances back at Sehun. "You still need to finish that tree, you know."

Jongin turns to where Baekhyun is looking at a bare, unfinished tree and moves to grab Jongdae’s arm, but Jongdae jerks back before he can.

“No no no,” Jongdae warns, and Sehun hides a laugh as the older man’s mind races through any and all excuses to get out of the flower shop, already knowing that Jongin would ask to stay behind. “No way, I promised Minseok I'd be back by five -”

"But hyung," and Jongin gives him the biggest puppy eyes Sehun’s ever seen, "please, just this once?"

“I swear to God, Jongin -”

“Minseok-hyung would probably tell you to stay too,” Jongin says, smiling charmingly at Jongdae. “Please, hyung?”

"How many of those have you dragged me through," Jongdae grumbles, but he's fighting a losing battle. "Fine."

Jongin laughs, and Chanyeol looks between them with an amused little expression. “Care to share with the class?”

“We can stay and help decorate,” Jongin says, hooking an arm through Jongdae’s, just to be safe. “We have time to spare.”

Sehun bites his lips to tamp down his smile, but he doesn’t quite think it’s working. He gives up hiding it when Jongin flashes him a soft grin and a thumbs up.

It takes a while, but eventually Baekhyun is satisfied with their work on the Christmas tree and disappears with Chanyeol - to make cookies, apparently - and takes Jongdae with them. Sehun and Jongin are left alone then, tasked with finishing the outdoor ornament arrangements, and Sehun finds very quickly how amusing Jongin finds his sensitivity to the cold.

“It’s freezing out here,” Sehun mutters, hands fumbling for the string of lights that Jongin passes to him. Jongin thinks it’s adorable, Sehun hides his flushed cheeks into his scarf at hearing the thought. “How does anyone walk in this temperature?”   


“Are you sure you aren’t just being a big baby,” Jongin teases, and hangs a pretty white plant just under the lights. “It’s not that cold right now. We’re going to get the worst of it in January.”

Sehun huffs. “Yes I know, but,” he sniffles, “it’s cold.”

Jongin’s just opening his mouth when a voice calls out to them from the doorway.

“Hey,” Chanyeol says, peeking his head out. His crooked Santa hat looks dangerously close to falling, “The cookies are done.”

Jongin picks up the boxes before Sehun can, moving first so he can hold the door open with his foot. Sehun shoots Chanyeol a look when the elder hides a laugh behind a cough. 

The cookies are split between them and then the rest are left out for visitors to enjoy, sitting prettily on top of the counter. Sehun thinks he’s watching Jongin a little too closely, but despite Jongin constantly worrying about his own obvious crush, he’s as oblivious as he is an open book.

A child walks up to Jongin with her arms outstretched, asking for a cookie, and Sehun covers his mouth with his hand when Jongin’s eyes form soft moons as he smiles and hands her his own.

Baekhyun smacks the back of his head.

“Get your shit together, kid,” he says, looking to Jongin too. He disregards Sehun’s whine of protest.

“He’s cute,” Chanyeol adds. He’s resting his chin on his hand, smiling at Sehun all-too knowingly. 

“Please help me get out of this misery,” Jongdae also says, chewing on a cookie, “it’s been months.”

Sehun ignores all of them.

  
  
  


Jongin is ambushed by an arm that locks him into a hug as soon as he opens the door to Minseok and Jongdae's flat and he yelps in surprise, trying to bat off the arm and see who it is.

"Lu-ge?" He hazards, judging by the floral scent of the shirt that his face is shoved into. The person holding him releases him and sighs dramatically.

"Next time I'm gonna wear Yixing's cologne or something," Luhan says, making a great show of acting disappointed. "You're too good at recognizing me. This was supposed to be a  _ surprise _ ."

Jongin smiles at the Luhan and drops his bag on the ground, stepping forwards when Luhan makes room for him to come in. "You're easy to tell apart."

Luhan makes a face, but it melts into a wide smile soon enough. “Happy birthday, Nini.”

Jongin smiles back. “Thanks for coming all the way back here. I know you’re really busy.”

Luhan waves away his words, taking his arm instead. “Come on, your hyungs are gonna pamper you even more than we usually do.”

He leaves his jacket draped over the back of the living room couch and lets Luhan drag him to the kitchen, his smile blowing into a grin when he sees Jongdae cooking.

“Jongdae-hyung,” Jongin exclaims, wrapping his arms around Jongdae’s waist. The older man jumps slightly but only grumbles at the contact, and Luhan chortles beside them. 

“He’s under strict orders from Minseok to not be mean today,” Luhan explains, taking advantage of Jongdae’s occupied hands to ruffle his hair. “Since it’s your birthday.”

Jongdae knocks his head back against Luhan’s fingers. “It’s not your birthday though, you get no special privileges.”

Luhan only tuts. “Be nice to your hyung, Jongdae, you only see me twice a year.” Ignoring Jongdae’s disgusted noise, Luhan turns to Jongin and takes both his hands, smiling widely. “By the way. A little birdy told me you have a crush?”

Jongin groans. “I'm gonna kill Yixing."

“Don’t be too mad,” Luhan says, already pulling him out the kitchen. Jongin has a bad feeling about this. “It’ll take a while before the meal’s done - let’s go visit flower boy. I wanna see him for myself.”

\------

It’s been a while since Jongin went to the shop.

Well - not a while.

It’s only been two weeks or so, but it feels longer than that, what with New Year’s celebrations and the holidays and his dance classes getting a break for the winter. It's always been jarring for him to stumble into vacation season without warning, going from the bustling pace of everyday work to doing almost nothing but lounge around in his apartment and order chicken by delivery, using the festivals as an excuse to let himself indulge.

Jongin doesn’t want to admit how much he’s wanted to see Sehun in that time.

Luhan’s eyes narrow as soon as he steps into the shop, scrutinizing every little detail about it. It’s as if he’s set expectations that the shop - and the people in it - need to pass. Jongin isn’t too surprised. It’s Luhan, after all.

It takes a bit of looking around for Jongin to find Sehun, organizing pots towards the back of the shop.

“Hey Jongin,” Sehun starts calling out, leaning his head out of the shelf of plant pots, but he catches sight of Luhan behind him and his eyes widen, standing stock still for a moment until Jongin tilts his head.

“Sehun? Is something wrong?”

Sehun’s gaze snaps back to Jongin and he smiles, shaking his head. “No, nothing’s wrong. Who…” he trails off, clearly looking at Luhan, and Jongin wonders if he’s imagining the tension between them.

“This is Luhan,” Jongin says, taking Luhan’s arm so he can bring him forwards a bit. “Lu-ge, this is Oh Sehun.”

“Ah.” Sehun opens his mouth once, closes it, and smiles again. “Nice to meet you. Did you two need something in particular?”

Luhan’s the one that speaks this time, moving a little closer to Jongin to stand behind him almost protectively. “It’s Jongin’s birthday, so we were thinking a small bouquet.”

Sehun blinks at Jongin. “It’s your birthday?”

Jongin shoots a look at Luhan before he turns to Sehun, not sure what he should say or how.

“Yeah,” he says after a while.

Sehun stares at him for a few moments, but eventually he starts nodding, slowly. “Alright, I think I can walk you through something.”

Sehun asks them a bunch of questions about the bouquet - whether they want it to have some special meaning, what color scheme they’d like, what types of flowers they want. In the end, they come up with a very pastel colored arrangement; small flowers in similar colors of pink, light purple, white, and even the green of the stalks is relegated to a lighter hue. 

Jongin watches Sehun create a beautiful bouquet from the random assortment that they’d had just moments ago, effortless and graceful as he always is. 

But at the end, Sehun seems to remember something suddenly, and he excuses himself for a moment before coming back, a pink rose in his hand that he weaves into the very center of the bouquet.

“It’s like the centerpiece,” Sehun says, smiling as he hands the bouquet over to Jongin. “Eye-catching.”

Next to Jongin, Luhan looks like he wants to say something, but Jongin doesn’t have a chance to focus on him much when Sehun starts scribbling something down on a piece of paper -  _ to the birthday boy _ \- that he slips between the flowers.

“Happy birthday, Jongin,” Sehun says, smiling that wide, beautiful smile of his. “And a belated Happy New Year.”

Jongin thinks he might be a little too obvious as he hides his blush behind the bouquet walking out of the shop. He only really blinks back the lingering nerves when Luhan’s hand comes up, ruffling his hair.

“You have an interesting friend there,” Luhan says, smiling slightly. It looks genuine, at the least, and Jongin feels himself relaxing at the sight. “He seems nice.”

“He is nice,” Jongin says, smelling the flowers again. They’re the most pleasant bundle. “I like him a lot.”

Luhan laughs shortly. “He should be the one hearing that, not me.”

Jongin shrugs.

He’s not ready just yet. But they’re getting there.

  
  
  


The next time Jongin steps up to the flower shop, it looks like a toddler had trampled through the narrow walkways and tossed around as many pots as they could lift. The glass windows that normally boast the wide collection of flowers and plants instead show cracked ceramic and sprayed dirt over the floors, flowers in a mess. The artsy sign that would have said  _ open _ on any other day is now turned on the side that writes  _ closed, _ but Jongin notices Sehun and Baekhyun near the back, and waves when Sehun glances up towards him with a tilted head.

“What happened?” Jongin asks as soon as Sehun opens the door, Baekhyun right behind him.

Sehun blows through his teeth in frustration, hesitating a little before he says, “It was the storm yesterday.” His voice is a little weird, Jongin thinks, a little - guilty? But there’s no reason for Sehun to feel guilty about this. He kicks lightly at the dirt despite Baekhyun’s scolding. “Something happened and this was the aftermath.”

Baekhyun looks just as annoyed. “It might have been a combination of the wind and the snow, but we think one of the pots got knocked over and created a domino effect.”

Something about the situation isn’t adding up. The storm yesterday was bad, but it wasn’t bad enough to get past walls, and definitely not enough to make a mess so far into the shop. But Jongin isn’t really in the right to be questioning them. He looks around at the disarray of pots and dirt and plants and winces. “Um,” he offers weakly, “I could help.”

Baekhyun waves him off easily. “It’s fine,” he says, turning back to head towards the counters. “I can get it cleaned. Can you take Sehun out for now? It’s easier when he’s not in here to trip over more pots and make things worse.”

Jongin frowns at the words. Sehun is one of the most naturally graceful people he’s ever seen, he can’t imagine him tripping over anything. But Sehun takes Baekhyun’s comment in stride. 

“Alright, let’s go, Jongin.” He grabs Jongin’s arm and starts dragging him out before Jongin can protest or ask again if Baekhyun wants an extra hand. “Bye, hyung.”

“Bye, you brat.”

Jongin hasn't even straightened his jacket as he gets pulled along by Sehun's grasp, but he doesn't have a chance to think about the fact that they're holding hands from the way he’s dragged out of the store.

“There’s a cafe I wanted to go to,” Sehun says, before Jongin can even open his mouth. “Let’s try out some of the cakes and get one for Baekhyun-hyung.”

“Um, Sehun -”

Sehun turns in his grasp and reaches over for Jongin’s other hand too, and at this point his brain is too fried to think anymore.

“Jongin?”

Jongin snaps his mouth shut and nods. He can’t trust his voice not to break if he speaks.

  
  
  


“You almost got caught,” Baekhyun says when Sehun gets back. He takes one look at the peace offering Sehun holds out to him and snorts, placing the cake slice on the counter. “Did you have fun on your date?”

Sehun scowls. “We didn’t get caught. And it wasn’t a  _ date. _ ”

“Keep telling yourself that. But if he’d come just ten minutes earlier he’d have seen the real reason for the mess,” Baekhyun says, but when Sehun looks up, he doesn’t look angry. “We’ll be talking about that later, by the way, you need to learn how to control your magic more.”

Baekhyun’s expression softens when Sehun’s own doesn’t let up. “You know you’re going to have to tell him eventually, right?”

"I know." Sehun turns away. “I will. Soon.”

\-----

Sehun hadn’t been planning on telling Jongin like  _ this _ .

But to be fair, he hadn’t expected  _ anyone _ to come in through the door to the employee room when Baekhyun had specifically told him he’d be taking care of customers. 

He can’t have made up an explanation for this even if he tried.

Because one of the jars of flowers is floating up in the air near his head and another holds a small sprout that’s rapidly growing into a tulip, while the last big pot’s tree starts sparkling with a shimmer of green and blue. And Jongin is staring at him, eyes wide and mouth gaping like he isn’t sure what to do, thoughts racing too quickly for even Sehun to really get a grip on them.

His main thoughts are of magical elk, of elves or Fae in particular, and Sehun panics.

“It’s not what it looks like!”

Jongin’s mouth is still open, but it closes very, very slowly, and his eyes don’t leave the very clearly not normal plants. “That,” he pauses, “Is there even another explanation for that?”

He sounds a lot calmer than Sehun had expected, and his mind process is already slowing down to its regular pace. It’s one of the best reactions anyone’s ever had to finding out that he isn’t fully human, and Jongin relaxing helps Sehun breathe more easily. 

“I -” Sehun sighs. “I was planning to tell you eventually, but I never got around to it.”

Jongin's biting his lip. His thoughts are still going through the possible species Sehun could be part of, so Sehun sighs again and decides to spare him the deduction.

"I'm Fae." He pauses. "Part Fae."

Jongin stares. "Oh."

"That's a very lackluster reaction," Sehun says dryly. Had the Fae that Jongin was with a few weeks ago - Luhan, was it? - told Jongin that Sehun is also part magical?

This snaps Jongin out of whatever daze he'd been in, and he shakes his head and hands. "No, no I mean," Jongin frowns. "I'm not too surprised? Lu-ge is Fae and I’ve been in contact with Fae people, and you’re in a shop that sells magical flowers anyway so the connection wasn’t too hard to make. Is Baekhyun-hyung Fae too?”

“I -” Sehun starts, then stops. There’s no point hiding anything now. “Yeah. But he’s full Fae, so he’s a lot more powerful than I am.”

Jongin makes a small noise as he nods. "That makes sense."

"Did you know already?" Sehun asks. He doubts Jongin knew. The thought had been fleeting a few times, but Jongin had never truly given it much weight, at least not when he was near Sehun. It didn't seem to bother him enough that he'd think about it when they were together. That should be a good sign.

His breathing slows when Jongin nods. "I told you, I had a small hunch, but it's not like I could confirm anything. Besides, you're really pretty, so you must get that a lot -"

He cuts himself off as a flush travels from the bronze of his neck to his face, and Sehun's own head goes blank at the words, cheeks heating up. 

"I'm sorry," Jongin says helplessly. "I'm thinking out loud too much."

But the embarrassment gives way to something akin to horror as Jongin whips his head up to look at Sehun. "Wait, if you're Fae, does it mean you can read minds?"

Sehun blinks. "How do you know that?"

His question is unanswered as Jongin makes a strangled noise in the back of his throat, covering his face with his hands. "Oh god, so you heard all of what I was thinking? I'm so sorry you must think I'm such a creep -"

Now  _ this  _ makes Sehun muffle a soft snort into the back of his hand. Of all the things that Jongin could be worried about - violation of privacy, unpermitted probing - this is what he focuses on?

Jongin tries to glare up at him, but it doesn’t have much of an effect considering his flustered expression. “Sehun,” Jongin whines, “Don’t  _ laugh  _ at me. Were you just hanging out with me because you felt sorry for me? I’m really sorry if I made you uncomfortable, but you don’t need to -”

Baekhyun was right, Sehun thinks, still giggling a little. Jongin’s much too good of a human.

“Jongin,” he interrupts, reaching out to calm Jongin’s panicked gestures. He waits until Jongin goes quiet to smile at him. “I wouldn’t have gone out with you just to placate you or something. I wanted to get closer to you because I like you.”

Sehun can  _ hear  _ Jongin’s thoughts scattering, and he promptly decides that it’s something he wants to do to Jongin more often.

“I -” Jongin’s breath hitches, “what?”

“I like you,” Sehun repeats. “You would have known if you paid attention to the flowers I was giving you personally.”

Carnations - fascination and new love.

Pink and white daisies - tender and soft love.

A pink rose - confession.

But Jongin doesn’t need to know all this just now. Sehun smiles. “And I think you like me too.”

“You think?” Jongin’s voice is weak.

Sehun steps closer. He’s waited long enough, and he wants more than whatever this is. “I know,” he corrects, his smile softens a little. “And I’d like it if we could go out sometime.”

Jongin stays quiet for a moment. “I was planning to do this today,” he says, and he laughs slightly. “I can’t believe you beat me to it.”

Sehun's eyes are inquisitive, but he's silent as Jongin reaches into his bag to take out a long, slender box.

"It was supposed to be done under different circumstances," Jongin says quietly, "but I think it's too late for that."

Slowly, Sehun opens the box, lifting the lid carefully. His jaw drops open and he looks up at Jongin with wide eyes, but Jongin can only offer him a wavering smile. He'd had no idea how Sehun would react to the gift, and prayed even as he bought it that Sehun would like it. 

And it looks like he does. Jongin watches as Sehun takes the glass rose from its case with delicate touches, eyes wide and lips parted softly like he can’t quite believe it’s real. Jongin doesn’t blame him, he’d thought the same when he went to pick it up from the store.

“It’s made of glass,” he says, unhelpfully. “And I mean,” Jongin bites his lip. This is not going at all the way he’d wanted. “I - the rose, it means -”

“I know,” Sehun says softly. He’s tracing over the tips of the red glass petals, fingers as light as a feather. “Hold on, if we’re doing it this way I want to give you something too. Wait here.”

Jongin thinks his heart’s going to hammer out of his chest while he waits for Sehun to return. He’d spent hours researching the meanings of flowers and how to present someone with the right one, but he’d ended up picking a rose to gift to Sehun anyway, cliche as it is. The real meaning of the rose is far deeper than the bubbling, anxious butterflies in his stomach right now, but with Sehun, Jongin thinks it’ll get to that point sooner or later.

_ I like you. _

Maybe - probably - he should have just said it out loud. He doesn’t get a chance to lament his terrible decision-making skills any longer because Sehun returns from the employee room soon enough, small wrapped flower in his hand. Five petals, delicate layers of life.

Jongin can’t help the bubbling laugh that rises out of him when he recognizes it.

An ambrosia.

_ I like you too. _

**Author's Note:**

> I love SeKai they're adorable, I hope you enjoyed the snippets of ChanBaek and the appearances of many other members as well - Jongdae was such a treat to write lmaooo
> 
> I really tried to put as many members as I could, but I wanted the focus of the plot to be on SeKai, which is why I ended up omitting like five other members I'm so sorryyyy
> 
> Hopefully, this mess was somewhat enjoyable to read, I really really really hope that it made someone smile.
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated - thank you so much for reading!!!


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